1. Anthony Molloy,
on behalf of the Labour Land Campaign (LLC), complained to the Independent
Press Standards Organisation that The Daily Telegraph breached Clause 1
(Accuracy) of the Editors’ Code of Practice in an article headlined
“Tax on homes ‘to treble under Labour plans for Land Value Tax’”, published
online on 29 May 2017.

2. The article
reported that the Labour party manifesto for the 2017 general election had
outlined that the party would consider introducing a Land Value Tax (LVT), and
reported claims that “council tax bills would treble for middle-class
homeowners” under the proposals. The article also reported that the policy has
been driven by the LLC, a working group praised by Jeremy Corbyn, and that the
LLC proposed to introduce LVT at a “standard rate” of 3 per cent of the value
of land, which would be applied to 55 per cent of a home’s value.

3. The complainant
said that the article had misquoted the LLC research paper, which stated that
the average rate of LVT would be set at approximately 0.85 per cent of capital
value. The complainant said that this research paper was in draft format and
did not represent official LLC policy, noting that the LLC has no official
policy on the implementation of LVT. He also said that the article gave the
misleading impression that the Labour party and the LLC were affiliated,
because it appeared to associate LLC research figures with Labour party policy.

4. The newspaper
said that the article was an accurate report of the LLC research paper, which
had stated that the discounted rate of 0.85 per cent would last for only a
transitional period of ten to twenty years, following which the standard rate
of 3 per cent would apply. The newspaper said that the LLC research paper was
written by two senior members within the organisation, therefore the newspaper
was of the belief that it was an accurate reflection of LLC policy.

5. The newspaper
said that it was accurate to report that the Labour party manifesto contained
plans for a LVT, a policy which has been driven by the LLC, and said that this
did not give the impression that the LLC and Labour party are affiliated.

Relevant Code provisions

6. Clause 1
(Accuracy)

i) The Press must take care not to publish inaccurate,
misleading or distorted information or images, including headlines not
supported by the text.

ii) A significant inaccuracy, misleading statement or
distortion must be corrected, promptly and with due prominence, and — where
appropriate — an apology published. In cases involving IPSO, due prominence
should be as required by the regulator.

iii) A fair opportunity to reply to significant inaccuracies
should be given, when reasonably called for.

iv) The Press, while free to editorialise and campaign, must
distinguish clearly between comment, conjecture and fact.

Mediated outcome

7. The complaint
was not resolved through direct correspondence between the parties. IPSO
therefore began an investigation into the matter.

8. Following IPSO’s
intervention, the newspaper offered to publish the following clarification as a
footnote to the online article:

“Further to publication of this article, we have been asked
to point out that the land value tax proposals by the Labour Land Campaign
(LLC) appeared in a draft document that is not LLC policy, and suggested an
introductory rate of 0.85% of land value, only rising to 3% later. We would
further clarify that the document is one of many proposals as to how a land
value tax could be advantageously implemented to replace unfair, economically
inefficient taxes, that the Labour Land Campaign is not affiliated to the
Labour Party and that its research does not inform Labour Party policy”.

9. The complainant
said that this would resolve the matter to his satisfaction.

10. As the complaint was successfully mediated, the
Complaints Committee did not make a determination as to whether there had been
any breach of the Code.

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